A number of devices are known for quickly heating or cooking foods in a relatively short time; an example of such structures are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,474,221; U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,431 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,915,962. There is, however, a need to provide a system and apparatus for cooking food such as meat patties or hamburgers quickly while retaining the palatability of the food. Another need is that of providing an automatic unit that will cook hamburgers more quickly and uniformly.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new device for cooking foods and particularly for grilling meat patties such as hamburgers.
The apparatus and method of the present invention has been found to cook the food more quickly than conventional methods, to provide a more uniformly cooked food, and to cook the food with less weight loss than results when cooking the same food by conventional apparatus. It has further been found that the apparatus of the invention cooks the food as fast or faster than the present microwave ovens and also browns the food to have a very pleasing appearance.
Also, and of importance, is the fact that the apparatus of the invention provides a cooked food product which is more flavorful; that is, it tastes better than conventionally cooked foods. It is believed that one reason for this fact is that since the meat patty is cooked more quickly it thus retains or seals a greater percentage of the meat juices within the meat during the cooking process than is done by conventional apparatus, resulting in a juicer piece of meat.
Another reason why the cooked meat patty is believed to be more flavorful is the fact that the apparatus of the invention cooks the food more uniformly throughout its thickness than is done by conventional apparatus. To cook, say a meat patty, in conventional apparatus, a higher temperature has to be established in those layers of the meat near the surfaces in order that the center layers of the meat be properly cooked. This is believed to cause the outer layers of the meat to become relatively overcooked, dry; and, hence less juicy. In contrast to the foregoing, the present invention provides an apparatus wherein the entire thickness of the food (excluding the exterior visible surfaces) is cooked uniformly throughout to provide juicer and tastier pieces of meat. Present day cuisine and eating habits require that the exterior visible surfaces of the meat be relatively brown; this too is accomplished by the inventive apparatus.
The apparatus of the present invention possesses another important feature in that it does not use any high frequency energy or microwaves which might be injurious to the user if leakage of the high frequency energy is not prevented. Thus, the cooking device of the invention may be used safely and without any special protecting features such as required in microwave ovens. Further, food such as a meat patty may be cooked by the apparatus of the present invention as fast or faster than the time required by microwave ovens for cooking the same food.